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The Wisdom Of Barnyard Bruke: "SAFETY & YOUNG'NS, SPORTS INJURY STATISTICS, SCOPE OF PROBLEM"

Greetings to ever one in western Illinois and all readers of The Quill. This week has celebrations fer Columbus Day last Monday, National Boss Day this Wednesday, and of course full moon on Friday. I'm not fer sure it is possible to take so much excitement all in one week!

Corn harvest seems to be progressing satisfactorily with terrific yields be'n reported. One farmer reported a yield of over 300 bpa. If "n that is the case, one can assume his yield would make up fer the loss incurred by this fall's lower market prices.

Soybean harvest has begun in earnest with noticeably dusty fields be'n spotted throughout the region.

Yields are frequently be'n reported at 60 plus bpa and one farmer reported a field at 85 bpa. Wonder what that will do to bean prices if'n no one is exaggerate'n on the matter.

Safety and Young'ns

Last week's column mentioned about 150,000 to 200,000 kids are injured on U.S. farms and ranches each year accordin' to the National Children's Safety network. This statistic is often used to try to pass laws outlaw'n involvement of farmers's kids on the farm.

To put things in perspective here is some enterest'n information on sports injuries from the University of Rochester Medical Center:

How frequently do sports injuries occur?

In the U.S. about 30 million children and teens participate in some form of organized sports. More than 3.5 million injuries each year, which cause some loss of time of participation, are experienced by these participants. Almost one-third of all injuries incurred in childhood are sports-related injuries. By far, the most common injuries are sprains and strains.

Obviously, some sports are more dangerous than others. For example, contact sports, such as football, can be expected to result in a higher number of injuries than a non-contact sport, such as swimming. However, all types of sports have a potential for injury, whether from the trauma of contact with other players or from overuse or misuse of a body part.

Injury statistics and incidence rates

The following statistics are from the National SAFE KIDS Campaign and the American Academy of Pediatrics:

• Approximately 3.5 million children and adolescents ages 14 and younger get hurt annually playing sports or participating in recreational activities.
• Although death from a sports injury is rare, the leading cause of death from a sports-related injury is a brain injury.
• Sports and recreational activities contribute to approximately 21 percent of all traumatic brain injuries among American children and adolescents.
• The majority of head injuries sustained in sports or recreational activities occur during bicycling, skateboarding, or skating incidents.
• More than 775,000 children and adolescents ages 14 and younger are treated in hospital emergency rooms for sports-related injuries each year. Most of the injuries occurred as a result of falls, being struck by an object, collisions, and overexertion during unorganized or informal sports activities.

Where and when:

• Playground, sports, and bicycle-related injuries occur most often among young children, between the ages of 5 and 14 years old. Bicycle and sports-related injuries also affect older children and adolescents, in addition to overexertion.
• The highest rates of injury occur in sports that involve contact and collisions.
• More severe injuries occur during individual sports and recreational activities.
• Most organized sports-related injuries (62 percent) occur during practice.

Who:

• More than 30 million high school children participate in organized sports.
• Children between 5 and 14 years of age account for almost half (40 percent) of sports-related injuries for all age groups.
• More than 775,000 children participating in sports activities are injured each year, and one in four injuries is considered serious.
• Children who are less developed than a more mature child of the same age and weight are at increased risk for injury.
• Sports-related injury severity increases with age.
• Before puberty, girls suffer more sports injuries than boys.
• During puberty, boys suffer more injuries more severely than girls.
• Children who are just beginning a sport or activity are at a greater risk for injury.

Types of sports and recreational activities

Consider these estimated injury statistics for 2009 from the Consumer Product Safety Commission:

• Basketball. More than 170,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in emergency rooms for basketball-related injuries.
• Baseball and softball. Nearly 110,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for baseball-related injuries. Baseball also has the highest fatality rate among sports for children ages 5 to 14 with three to four children dying from baseball injuries each year.
• Bicycling. More than 200,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for bicycle-related activities.
• Football. Almost 215,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for football-related injuries, with nearly 10,000 of those hospitalized as a result of their injuries.
• Ice-Hockey. More than 20,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for ice hockey-related injuries.
• In-line and roller skating. More than 47,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for in-line skating-related injuries.
• Skateboarding. More than 66,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for skateboarding-related injuries with more than 4,500 children hospitalized as a result of their injuries.
• Sledding and tobogganing. More than 16,000 children ages 5 5o 14 were treated n hospital emergency rooms for sledding-related injuries.
• Snow skiing and snowboarding. More than 25,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for snow boarding and snow-skiing-related injuries.
• Soccer. About 88,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for soccer-related injuries.
• Trampolines. About 65,000 children ages 14 and under were treated in hospital emergency rooms for trampoline-related injuries.

Scope of Problem

Additionally, national data further describes the scope of the problem:

More sports-related non-fatal injuries are treated in hospital emergency departments than any other type of unintentional injury.

Approximately 4.3 million sports and recreational-related injuries were treated in hospital emergency departments during July 2000-June 2001. This represents 15.7% of all non-fatal unintentional injuries, across all ages and genders.

Among children aged 10-14 years, 46.3% of all non-fatal unintentional injury ED visits were a result of a sports-or recreational-related injury. Although this percentage was lower among adolescents 15-19 years old (31.4%), sports and recreation related injuries in this age group still represented nearly one-third of all ED visits.

Other national surveys have highlighted the problem of sports injuries among children and adolescents. During the years 1997-1998, an estimated 2.6 million annual ED visits were sports and recreation-related (1997-1998 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey for people ages 5-24 years.

However, results from the 1997-1999 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), showed that when medical treatment beyond ED visits was included, that figure rose to almost 4.5 million annual sports and recreation-related injuries.

This is supported by prior NHIS data from the 1988 Child Health Supplement that reported nearly 4.4 million children ages 5 to 17 years old suffered a sports and recreation-related injury, representing 35.8% of all injuries to people that age.

Dr. David Geier gives the follow'n sober'n statistics about youth sports and injuries. Dr. Geier is Director of MUSC sports medicine and an orthopedic surgeon. He writes a sports medicine column for the Post and Courier.

More young athletes are playing sports than ever before. The National Council of Youth Sports estimates that 44 million kids play at least one organized sports activity. And while this surge is encouraging for so many reasons, it also has contributed to one worrisome trend, injuries are skyrocketing.

As a sports medicine physician and orthopaedic surgeon, I and others like me, certainly can treat injured athletes. But as I have mentioned previously in my columns, I believe that part of our responsibility to athletes is to try to prevent these injuries in the first place.

Just over one year ago, the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine partnered with many other healthcare and sports organizations to create the STOP Sports Injuries campaign.

When Safe Kids USA, one of the founding organizational supporters of the campaign, asked me to participate in an upcoming event, I enthusiastically agreed.

A short column like this one doesn't give me nearly enough room to discuss all the possible injuries and their ramifications, let alone to offer prevention strategies. Instead, I want to offer some frightening statistics that suggest that we are confronting a real and serious problem.

• Sports injuries account for 4.3 million hospital emergency room visit annually in the United States. (Center for Disease and Prevention).
• Nearly 50 percent of all injuries sustained by middle school and high school students during sports are overuse injuries. (American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons).
• Approximately 50 percent of overuse injuries in children and adolescents are preventable. (The American College of Sports Medicine).
• Girls involved in organized sports have an estimated injury rate of 20 to 22 per 100 participants per season, while boys have a risk of 39 to 100 participants per season. (National Athletic Trainers' Assoc.).
• Surgeons are seeing four times as many overuse injuries in youth sports compared to five years ago. (Dr. James Andrews, orthopaedic surgeon).
• Approximately two out of five traumatic brain injuries among children are associated with participation in sports and recreational activities. (National Youth Sports Safety Foundation).
• 21 percent of youth athletes say they have been pressured to play with an injury. (National Youth Sports Safety Foundation).
• 62 percent of organized sports-related injuries occur during practices rather than games. Despite this fact, one-third of parents often do not take the same safety precautions during their child's practices a they would for a game. (National Safe Kids Campaign).

Illinois legislatures and Governor Quinn are concerned enough about sport injuries that they signed into law an unfunded mandated on our already cash strapped schools effective January 1, 2014 requiring both public and private high schools to have catastrophic-injury insurance for athletics play'in in school-sponsored sports.

Schools are required to have insurance that will cover payments for five years or $3 million in benefits, whichever comes first. Families are eligible after paying the first $50,000 in medical expenses.

Well, thar ya has it then - we need to be more aware of safety fer our young'ns, both on the farm and off the farm.

Be thankful fer our many bless'ns, enjoy family and friends, and diligently practice safety fer our young'ns sake.

See ya in church this week, hopefully.

Keep on Smile'n

Catch ya later

BARNYARD BRUKE